Dahya Punja Library
| Dahya Punja Library, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania General View  |
Diamond Jubilee Building
| Diamond Jubilee Building, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania General view from street  |
Diamond Jubilee Building, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Street elevation, detail  |
Golden Jubilee Building
| Golden Jubilee Memorial Building, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Exterior view  |
Golden Jubilee Memorial Building, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Exterior view from Jamatkhana tower  |
United Nations Building
(Formerly the Matasalamat
Mansions)
| United Nations Building, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Exterior view, main elevation  |
United Nations Building, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Main entrance  |
General views of Dar es Salaam
(includin two pictures from the
Darkhana tower)
| Dar es Salaam, Tanzania General view of downtown from Jamatkhana tower  |
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania General view of downtown from Jamatkhana tower, with mosque complex at right  |
Photographer: Al-Karim Walli
Source: ArchNet
Ismailimail 
Dahya Punja Libraary is one of the monuments built by Asian philanthropists .I was curious to find out about Dahya Punja and found out two plaques one shows that foundation stone was laid by Seth Mathuradas Kalidas Mehta and the opening was done by Seth Alidina Datoo Patel a good combination .It would be interesting to find out how the whole library was set up.I heard people say that the last trustee was Late Kitabwalla the lawyer. Anybody can throw more light on this.
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Dahya Punja was/is an Ismaili family. Library was called the Dahya Punja Indian Library. – Indian was removed. The family lived in Dsm – DP owned a large farm in what is now Upanga. HIs children are better known as Jaffer Daya family. They all reside in Canada.
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Daya Punja Library is considered to be the families cultural link and educational empowerment for the immigrants from Gujarat when they first arrived to Dar-es-Salaam. Daya Punja emigrated to this region from Gujarat in the mid-1800 (exact date is unknown). He was between the ages of 9-12 years when his family told him to move to Dar-es-Salaam as per guidance provided by Sultan Muhammed Shah. He accidentally landed in Zanzibar where he spent most of his early life until he reached in his twenties, when he went back to India to get married. He and his bride came to Dar-es-Salaam where he bought a huge farm, much of what is now Upanga. The family eventually lost the farm after successive deaths of young Jaffer Dayas and lack of support from the community at large.
Daya Punja was an avid reader with a large collection of books, mostly in Gujarati and broad range of subjects. Upon his passing, his son Jaffer Daya, bought the land and erected Daya Punja Library to honour his father and give back to the community what his passion. Daya Punja’s books were donated to this library by Jaffer Daya to provide the community at large access to knowledge and information. My understanding is that the books were signed in and out using an honour system and may have changed to a fee structure but that is unknown. Most of the books were eventually signed out and never signed back in and eventually robbed the library of its treasures. There is a gap in my knowledge of this place after it stopped functioning as a library and the trustees and their role.
Though it is my great great grandfathers name on the building and built by my great grand father we have lost much history about the libraries past and many of the elders of our family have since passed on and taken this historical accounts and knowledge with them.
The Daya Punja Library was the first Indian Gujarati Library in Africa. A great monument that Tanzanians, Gujaratis and Ismailis alike should be proud off.
it served a key role as a cornerstone of its roots for the Gujarati community and became a centre where readers and intellectuals spent time contemplating their plans to establish themselves in Tanzania.
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Sir
My name is Dinesh VAishnav. I am Executive Secretary of Tanzania Asian Development Association (TADA)based in Dar es SAlaam. We are exploring possibilities of establish contact with you. Grateful if you furnish us your Email ID and the Tel phone number. TADA is headed by Chair Shabir Abji. Hon. Secretary is Bharat Ruparelia.
Regards
Dinesh
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You can contact me. My wife Nargis is the great granddaughter of Dahya Punja. Her mother was Leila Jaffer Dahya Punja.
Moyezsomani@shaw.ca
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Gratified with response. In conversation now wirh Bro. Moez.
Dinesh
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Moyez:
You wrote …
“HIs children are better known as Jaffer Daya family. They all reside in Canada.”
You’ve missed that there is another half of the family that is the Walli Dayha Punja family, as Jaffer was not the only child of Dayha. Indeed, that is one of the reasons for my personal interest and why I sought out the library to capture the image (my extended name would be Al-Karim Sadrudin Abdulla Walli Dayha Punja). This part of the family resides in Canada as well as Tanzania. Dayha Punja had two other sons I’m aware of, Esmail and Issa, however, I do not know descendants from those, or even if there are any.
Rizwan:
It seems we share a great-great-grandfather, though you may have got the farm – LOL!
You have shared quite of bit of information, some of which I did not know. If you have further details, would you mind sharing with me directly? Any images, particularly historical images of shared relations, would be of great interest. I’m also curious about the other lines from Jaffer Dayha (Ibrahim, Yusuf, Yakub) – not sure what happened to them. Please e-mail walli ‘at’ shaw ‘dot’ ca – thx!
I will add a pinch preceding where you started …
Dahya Punja was the son of Punja Lalji, who was the elder brother to Lakha Lalji. This is an interesting connection to the Kassim Lakha family (Kassim was the son of Lakha Lalji, and thus 1st cousin to Dahya Punja). In fact my father recalled his father Abdulla’s relations with Hassan Kassim-Lakha, but didn’t know the specifics till we found a pinch of info on the Internet and through the Kassim-Lakha family (they had maintained their family tree a bit better). Punja Lalji was the son of Lalji Manji who was the son of Manji Jeraj who was the son of Jeraj Sumar (or Jeraj Surji). According to Mumtaz Ali Tajddin Sadik Ali, the family was from Berberaja about 12 miles from Jamnagar in Kutchh prior to migrating to East Africa.
A further tid-bit of information regarding the library also comes from Mumtaz Ali Tajddin Sadik Ali who notes that on July 16, 1927, a function was organized by Alidina Datoo Patel at the Dahya Punja Indian Library attended by President of Council Kanji Nanji and other notable individuals. The opening remarks were made by the head of the Ismailia School (Dhanani) who spoke about services of various Ismailis of the past and concluded with few words for Khuda Baksh Talib. Other speakers included Major Murji and Mukhi Akbar Ali Ratansi Kanji. Council records would be interesting to review.
Shaukat:
You’ve asked some good questions! Do you have pictures of those plaques you mentioned? Would be interesting to see those images also, and archive them for my generations. Please do share if you can. Please e-mail walli ‘at’ shaw ‘dot’ ca – thx!
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Hello Al-Karim,
What a pleasure it is for me to get your insights and thank you for sharing. Clearly we are related. My extended name is Rizwan Ebrahim Dawood Jaffer Daya Punja Lalji Jeraj Sumar.
You are absolutely correct regarding the family tree. I gather from you name that you are related to Nizar Walli, who resides in Toronto. Nizari has created a comprehensive family tree which I have a copy. I am sure you will appear in the tree.
I was not aware of Esmail and Issa but will start my research.
I will send you pictures of family members and welcome the opportunity to meet with you if you are ever in Toronto or Ottawa, where I leave.
My personal e-mail address is jaffer.rizwan@gmail.com.
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I am very interested to read your discussion on the families in Dar. I am researching the buiildings created by the Gujerati and other Asians in the central business district. Perhaps some of you would be willing to help me connect your relatives to the buildings they constructed? Many have family or business names on them and I would like to learn more about the individuals, families, their communities and businesses to document their history and their great contribution to Dar’s historic architecture. Please write to me if you would like to contribute and help me build a detailed record.
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so far as the common knowledge goes, you are on the “right path” regarding the buildings in central Dar. My understanding was that Habib Poonja owned and operated nearly 49 buildings and Ali Mohamed Dewshi another 32 which were all nationalized by the then socialist government of Julius Nyerere. There are many buildings which still have their original names on them in central Dar. 2 years ago, when I visited Dar, unfortunately things are rapidly changing and tall buildings with mediocre architectural design and poor quality material (being made and sold for profit) are being constructed with or without proper (corrupt) permits. the whole face of Dar has and is changing. I believe that my cousins the sons of Ali Mohamed Dewshi (both Mohamed and Amin live in Toronto) may be able to offer you more insight into your research/project
Alnoor Chagpar
ps Hussein Bhanji and Kanji Lalji are other important names that come to mind
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Thanks so much for your respnse to my post. I know of only one or two Habib Poonja-connected buildings myself (I thought was spelt Punja as on one of the facades but maybe alternative spellings are usual?) but very interested to hear he was responsible for so many more. One of the ones I knew of has already been demolished but I have a good photo thankfully, though of course it’s a sad loss. Also to hear about the Dewshi ones. Are you interested yourself to contact your cousins or the others you mention to research this, or could you put me in touch with them? I lived for 5+ years in Dar from 2003 to 2009, did quite a bit of documentation on them then, and have continued following up the buildings there. Very aware of the demolitions and am lobbying for their protection along with others. have you seen the book of drawings of the old buildings in the CBD by Sarah Markes?
http://www.sarahmarkes.com/street-level/?tx_wtgallery_pi1%5Bshow%5D=90410697&cHash=5984603dd34a9be65a8ccc7e73757523
A second edition is coming out shortly. This is part of the effort. I am working on the captions so any information on specific buildings you know about would help a lot.
Karen
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Hello Karen,
Habib Punja’s grandson is Professor Zamir Punja at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada. For further particulars see http://www.sfu.ca/biology/faculty/punja/contactus.html. I hope this is helpful.
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Great, thanks. Do you happen to know where I could find information on GulamHussein or Sulemanjee Manzil – both names on buildings in Dar
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Hi Karen
Glad to hear from you.At the moment I am away from Dar but expected back around 25th of June I shall look for information on these buildings.
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I am glad that blog is picking up and giving us valuable information on various families.i would like to send to Karen moon the photos of the plaque in Dahya Punja Indian Library but I am traveling and as soon as I am back in Dar I shall arrange for them.however I am keen to know how was the library registered as it is not on records of Trustees.
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Shaukat – please also send to me if you can. walli AT shaw DOT ca
Thank-you!
Al-Karim
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Hello Shaukat,
It you don’t mind can you please add me to the list for the picture of the plaque. Thank you in advance.
Rizwan
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Hello all,
Does anyone know the current status of the building? Who owns it and any suggestions on how it can be preserved as a heritage site. It is is in a prime location and I fear it will fall under a demolition program to put another tall structure for profit.
Rizwan
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